A bouncer has been given a bravery award for stopping three men battering their victim in the street as he lay on the ground.

The group were likened to a “pack of wild dogs” during the attack in Downing Street, Cambridge, in the early hours of August 26, kicking the 22-year-old man until Revolution bar doorman Ashley Brown saved the day.

Eli Fairbank-Harmsworth, 19, from Stoke by Clare, Jason Gange, 25, and Terry Rudhall, 19, both from Haverhill, were given eight-month prison sentences suspended for 18 months at Cambridge Crown Court after being convicted by a jury of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Jurors heard how victim Henry Pepperell was enjoying a night out in Cambridge with his friend Joe Bass, who was also assaulted by Rudhall, when a “friendly” conversation in the street with the defendants on the way to get food turned sour.

Ashley Brown, 25, was walking back to his car after his shift when he saw the victim being knocked to the ground and then set upon by the trio.

He said: “The attack was brutal and if I hadn’t stopped them who knows what could have happened to him. I’m sure it would have been a lot worse. He was already unconscious and his breathing was difficult, he was in a bad way.”

When asked if he was worried about getting hurt he said: “I had to intervene. I shouted at the head doorman to radio the police and I knew that he was there with me so I wasn’t going in on my own.”

Mr Brown, who lives in Cambridge and does shifts at Fez Club and Lola Lo’s said it was a “shock” to get the award.

The father-to-be, who plans to spend his reward money on his baby, added: “Everyone seems to think that bouncers are horrible bastards. Hopefully this will make them realise that we are not all like that and some of us are decent people.”

Mr Pepperell’s injuries included a “massive” lump to his forehead, cuts to the cheek, a sore jaw and “puffed up” lip, two black eyes and a bruised and grazed nose.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth awarded Mr Brown the Sheriffs’ Award and £450 for stepping in, saying he was “greatly impressed by his public spiritedness”.

He told the defendants: “If Ashley Brown – who you tried to portray as some brutish bouncer when it was perfectly clear from his evidence that he was not – had not intervened far more serious injuries could well have resulted on Mr Pepperell as he lay on the ground and you kicked him.”

As well as the suspended prison sentences they were each told to pay £250 court costs and £250 compensation to the victim. Rudhall was given an extra month for the assault by beating on Mr Bass, which runs concurrently. Gange, who has previous convictions, must also do 200 hours unpaid work in the community.

Lawyers for the defendants said their clients wished they could “turn back time” and had learnt “harsh and painful” lessons.

Speaking after sentencing, James Cross, deputy manager at Revolution Cambridge, who cleaned the victim’s “unpleasant” injuries after the assault, said Ashley showed “immense bravery”. He added: “Breaking up a fight is one thing, but getting involved in a situation that could have easily ended badly for him is testament to the type of person Ashley is.”